This invention relates to harness or bundle assembly apparatus and, more particularly, to an assembly post for holding the bundle elevated on the layout board and for defining a turn in one or more wires in the bundle.
In the formation of a bundle from a plurality of flexible elongate objects such as wires, each wire is typically run individually on a wiring layout board between its desired termination points with the wire placed in a plurality of holding devices disposed along straight run portions of the desired bundle path. These holding devices generally tend to form the wires into a grouping of general circular cross section to permit convenient installation and tightening of cable ties. Examples of such holding devices and cable ties are disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,029,277 and 3,872,547, respectively. Heretofore, objects such as nails or dowels were used as supports for forming a turn in the bundle. Such straight supports tended to disperse the wires from their circular grouping with the result that after a cable tie was applied near the support and after removal of the bundle from the layout board, the wires would reassume a circular cross-sectional grouping and since a circle has a smaller periphery for a given cross section than any other configuration, the cable tie would become unacceptably loose.
Several corner posts have been proposed which include a mounting base and a wire holder having a concave profile for engaging the wires. As a part of the holder extended at least partially over the wires, the bundle could not be pulled from the layout board without interference from the corner post. In one of these posts the holder had to be removed from the base thus causing a loose part the assembler had to keep track of and replace on the base before starting fabrication of another bundle. The other prior art posts have holders which must pivot as the completed bundle is removed. As space is required for pivoting, the use of such corner posts may be limited in high density wiring. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,540,110, 3,839,777 and 4,009,852.